What: #Strangelings: Paintings by Pixel Wizards
Where: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Massey Gallery
When: Today through Nov. 10, opening reception Oct. 24, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
When you make art for the digital world, the public may not recognize it as such. That’s a lesson that Carollyne Yardley learned when she first made the switch to painting full-time, after a career as creative director at Star Global Advanced IT Corp., a company she co-founded.
“That was a big surprise for me when I had my career change three years ago,” Yardley said. “A lot of my old clients were like, ‘I didn’t know you were artistic.’ And I thought that was a surprise and a great tragedy.”
But creativity has been part of the job description for all three of the local artists represented in #Strangelings: Paintings by Pixel Wizards, a show that runs today through Nov. 10 at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Massey Gallery.
KANO/APPS lead concept artist Jose Brand and Paul Dowd, who spent six years as lead artist for Zynga (which included overseeing the creation of the creatures for social networking game FarmVille) are “going analogue” with the show of paintings, alongside Yardley.
Art directors can play many roles, but they generally take charge of the look and feel of software interfaces and content. For Yardley, that has meant everything from branding to designing templates based on pyschological studies about what attracts clicks.
For Dowd and Brand, it has meant drawing the in-game art and building worlds for FarmVille and now Tiny Mob Games (Dowd), as well as Zombie Slayer, Pirate Clan and Viking Clan (Brand).
“It’s slowly changing, but I do agree. People think that computers are almost a trick: Not necessarily a tool, like a paintbrush,” Brand said. “But the techniques are actually very similar.”
Brand follows the same process when creating a painting that he does with his digital art: beginning with silhouettes, then filling out details, lighting and shadows.
“It’s all technique that I’ve used in digital artwork, which helps me build up my traditional paintings.”
Dowd says his digital work has made him work a lot faster. Although he began painting in high school, he said he hasn’t done it in years. After spending the first two years as the sole artist for Zynga, then advancing to lead a team of artists for four years at FarmVille, he has redirected his professional energies to creating mobile games for Tiny Mob Games. Recently, he returned to the canvas.
“It’s been a long time since I picked up a paintbrush, so that’s been really fun,” Dowd said.
And for Yardley, the attention to detail she developed working with software — down to the tiniest pixel— as well as the ability to visualize how those details will come together to make a bigger picture, has translated into her paintings.
Yardley typically paints detailed portraits where the human figure is replaced with a squirrel.
While Yardley, Dowd and Brand each said they incorporated processes and elements of their digital art in their painting, they also said they get something different out of fine art.
“It’s all creative, whatever I like. The fine-art stuff is quite expressive,” said Dowd.
Brand said he feels like his digital art goes hand-in-hand with his painting. Most of his paintings now begin with a digital mock up — rarely does he begin by picking up a pencil and paper anymore.
But the product is different.
“I really love having that finished work in the end — something to hold up and put on the wall. It’s definitely a different feeling.”